Transcript

Host: Hello and welcome to Prevention and Protection, the United Educators Risk Management Podcast. Today, Lindsay Bond, the Executive Director of HEPNet, will speak with Melanie Bennett, Senior Risk Management Counsel at United Educators.

A reminder to listeners that you can find other UE podcasts as well as UE Risk Management resources, on our website, www.ue.org. Our podcasts are also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Now here’s Melanie.

Melanie Bennett: Lindsay, welcome back to the podcast.

Lindsay Bond: Thanks, Melanie. I appreciate you having me with you.

Bennett: We’ve been working together for a long time. For anyone unfamiliar, HEPNet is the Higher Education Protection Network, a nonprofit association that provides resources and support for youth protection professionals. As a HEPNet board member, I’ve particularly enjoyed watching these resources grow from idea to fruition. And one of the exciting resources you released this year that we’re going to talk about today is the professional competencies.

Lindsay, can you start by talking about the history of the professional competencies and how they came to be?

Bond: Absolutely. Youth protection in higher ed is a relatively new field. It’s been around for about 10 years, but in the history of higher ed, that’s a very small blip. So we were hearing a lot from members and non-members about struggling with buy-in. People weren’t necessarily understanding the value of their jobs, they weren’t being validated, just overall awareness on what they do. And as we were closer to the really big news that came out, Sandusky and Nassar and things like that, the buy-in, I think, was a little more natural at those times. But as we get further away from that, people were struggling with buy-in validation, overall awareness of what they do, how they do it, why they do it.

The other thing with youth protection is people come from varied paths. We have people that come from programming, compliance, legal, risk. So we wanted to bring all of this together and validate youth protection as a field and as a profession. So we gathered about half a dozen or so members, and we worked with a consultant on what someone needs to know to effectively safeguard youth [who] are entrusted to the care of their university or college.

And I want to give a shout-out to Caroline Shelton at the University of Washington, [who] helped lead this effort. I know at times it was probably like herding cats, and she did a really great job with leading us and developing a really great piece that came out of it.

Bennett: It is great. What’s the central purpose of the competencies? How can schools use them?

Bond: It really emphasizes the need for stronger safeguards in college and university settings to protect the minors from harm. We know that most institutions are interacting with more minors than undergraduate and graduate students, which always surprises people when they do an inventory and they come back and they say, “Wow, you’re right. We are working with a whole lot of minors.” So really kind of standardizing that process. With the field of youth protection growing rapidly since 2012, the competencies were driven by the need to address systemic abuse and ensure the safety of minors in higher education environments.

Bennett: One of my favorite parts of the competencies is the risk management section, where it’s talking about why it’s important to consider risk management as part of your youth protection structure and how to incorporate it into your structure. One of my favorite parts of the competencies is the Risk Management section, where it’s talking about why it’s important to consider risk management as part of your youth protection structure and how to incorporate it into your structure. What are your favorite parts of the competencies?

Bond: Well, first of all, I’m shocked, Melanie, to learn that your favorite part is the risk management part. But it’s very appropriate for your line of work.

There’s a lot in these competencies that I’m particularly proud of. And first of all, there’s seven competencies in no particular order: Addressing child maltreatment; youth as unique population; education and professional development; institutional policies, procedures and guidelines; monitoring assessment; organizational leadership; and saving the best for last, risk management.

What I like most about the competencies is you don’t have to be an expert with shiny awards. This spans across developing, performing, and excelling - accommodating for all levels. And that’s whether you’re just starting out or you’re a VP, so on both ends of the spectrum. And it’s also likely that you may be stronger in one area than another, and that’s also OK. So we’re really meeting people where they are with these competencies, which I like. It’s more customizable that way.

And then we provide resources to help better equip those to protect those within their institution’s care. So it’s not just saying, “These are the things that you need to know, but then we’re providing a multitude of resources to help someone elevate within a certain area if they’d like to.”

You also might notice that some of the behaviors don’t occur in isolation. Youth protection requires strong collaboration and broad support across the organization, and so that’s intentionally woven in the competencies. And then the other piece that I like is that there’s a calculated self-assessment for members, but anyone can self-assess with the downloaded document. The calculated one just gives you a score in each particular area. And the self-assessment in general serves as a really great pre- and post-assessment. So if you’re going to a conference, if you are taking an education series or a certification to show your growth, and that’s a great tool to share with leadership as well, to show ROI on some of the initiatives that they’re paying for you to attend. And the self-assessment can be taken numerous times as well.

It’s my hope that people can use the competencies to advocate for resources. So I envision someone taking the self-assessment to their performance review. And maybe they say, “This is where I was at the beginning of the year, and this is where I am now.” Or just in general, “This is where I’m at in my professional career,” and advocating for equitable pay or more positions or whatever the resources are needed. And I also encourage people to have their supervisor take the assessment. It might be eye-opening to see where the gaps are, or also to help validate what you bring to the table. And your supervisor may have strengths in one area and you have strengths in the other, and together that makes a stronger youth protection program.

Bennett: And that leads me to two questions about who can and should use the competencies. So let’s start with question number one. Do you have to be a HEPNet member to access the competencies?

Bond: You do not. And that’s a change that we made this year that I’m really happy about. Anyone can access the competencies. As a nonprofit seeking to provide resources to prevent child abuse, it was important to us to broaden the reach of the competencies. And anyone can also take the included self-assessment. Members have access to the auto-calculated assessment, but the self-assessment is available to everyone.

Bennett: Great. And question number two, do you have to be a youth protection officer to understand and use these competencies?

Bond: You definitely do not need to be a youth protection professional to use these. When it comes to limiting access, privacy, and control, we know it takes everyone from the front desk staff to the Provost. So these competencies are for everyone, which is why there’s a spectrum. We don’t expect those on the periphery to have the same knowledge as a full-time youth protection professional. But as I mentioned, collaboration being key important for all to see their roles in this space.

Bennett: That’s it for today’s episode. Thank you, Lindsay, for joining me today.

Bond: Thanks for having me, Melanie. Always a pleasure.

Host: From United Educators insurance, this is the Prevention and Protection Podcast. For additional episodes and other risk management resources, please visit our website at www.ue.org.